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Sunday, 27 March 2016

Wow. I really cannot find a better word to describe how I felt after my first viewing of this film. It left me feeling uneasy, nauseated, and nearly left me void of food, as the nausea increased countless times during the disturbing and realistic goings-on). If that isn't a mark of excellence, then I don't know what is, and you are definitely reading the wrong blog.

Horror comes in many different forms, be it films that chill, scare, repulse or create feelings of dread and sadness. American Guinea Pig: Bouquet of Guts and Gore manages to bring all of these feelings into a seventy minute time frame and add a level of sadism and realism rarely seen in horror cinema (not since August Underground's Mordum has a film had such a profound effect on me).

At its most simplistic, AGP: Bouquet of Guts and Gore is the story of two women, one religious and one athiest who are kidnapped, drugged and then systematically dismembered by a beast of a man in a Baphomet mask, all the while being filmed by a crew who instruct the man how and when to systematically dismember the two women. I guarantee you've never seen anything like this.

I consider myself somewhat desensitised to whatever horror/splatter films can throw at me. Well, after seeing this and feeling like I had my stomach ripped out, cut open and the contents presented to me on a platter of splatter, I won't be so foolhardy in the future. AGP: Bouquet of Guts and Gore managed to repulse me, make me cringe, it very nearly made me look away from the screen and it haunted me. There are nice little touches in the film that are there to make the whole experience so much darker, such as mentions of religion, threats and an ending that is actually more affecting and chilling than any of the dismemberment shown on screen. I really felt sick to my stomach (yes, I know it isn't real, but that doesn't stop the emotional impact the last scene has. Perhaps being a parent made it even more hard-hitting).

If Flowers of Flesh and Blood got you wincing and shielding yourself from the viscera on-screen, then AGP: Bouquet of Guts and Gore is probably not going to be your sort of thing. What it does it take the very essence of that particular Guinea Pig film, and turns everything up to eleven and then doubles it again. Even if you enjoy blood, gore and dismemberment, this film breaks so many boundaries it makes the works of Olaf Ittenbach look like episodes of Friends (and I am a huge Ittenbach fan, so I mean no offence).

Put simply, American Guinea Pig: Bouquet of Guts and Gore is at a level where no one has reached before. It pushes and breaks boundaries in every direction, contains more gore than an explosion in a cattle shed and coupled with all of the viscera, is one of the most psychologically affecting pieces of extreme cinema I have witnessed.

A few weeks ago, I finally got hold of a copy of Ryan Nicholson's 'Collar'. After thouroughly enjoying Live Feed, Gutterballs and Hangar, I was looking forward to seeing what Plottdigger films had to offer. I was surprised at just how mean spirited and utterly depraved Collar is, and it is all the better for it.

Collar follows a hulking homeless man named 'Massive' (played to perfection by Nick Principe), who has a reputation for Satanism and extreme violence, on his trail of murder and abuse. A rookie cop is held against her will by Massive, but this is only the start of her nightmare and of Massive's ritualistic abuse and torture'.

Nothing could have prepared me for what Collar shows on screen. While Hangar pushed the boundaries with gross-out humour which worked with the paralell of gruesome shocks, Collar ditches the humour altogether. This is a horror film that excels in making the viewer feel like they are experiencing something very 'wrong'. The grime, brutality and debauchery present in this film seeps from every frame. This is a film that violates your senses in every way possible, and does not let up through its running time.

The brutality in this film will be uncomfortable viewing for many, but I can't help but feel that is the point. Horror films work better when the directors pull no punches, allowing the viewer to feel like they are in the hands of a madman, not able to second guess what is going to happen next. Not only does Collar succeed in this respect, but it pushes so many boundaries that it becomes a test of endurance just to make it to the end.

Collar is the perfect film for horror fans who are bored by the recent crop of CGI ghosts and such like. Its horrors are real, and there are no punches pulled. While it might not be for everyone, it is for those who like to see boundaries broken again and again. Although it may feel like you need to shower to wash the filth off you after viewing Collar, it is a fantastic film and manages to fit so much depravity into a 70-plus minute running time, it'll leave you breathless and disgusted.

Darkest regards......Dani.

P.S There is an Indiegogo campaign to help Ryan, Meg and Tyler Nicholson. I implore you to go over and read about the campaign and share/donate/ if you can. There are only four days left, so lets do all we can to help reach the target!

To check out the indiegogo and either share or donate (or do both) just click HERE.

Thursday, 24 March 2016

"Sounds like there is some shizzle going on down there my nizzle" -Pavel.

**CONTAINS SPOILERS**

The name of the film says it all. It's a B-movie, so it makes perfect sense to have the king of B-movies, Bruce Campbell, to star in, write and direct it. Bruce plays William, who is on a business trip with his wife in Bulgaria. They end up hiring Yegor to be their taxi driver for the day. On one of their trips through town, they drive through a Gypsy town which is a small community of, what else, Gypsy's. They almost run over one woman, that is revealed to have once been engaged to Yegor. She is also the housekeeper of the hotel William and his wife are staying at.

William catches her stealing a ring he bought for his wife. He chases her outside the hotel, but she ends up nearly killing him with a severe blow to the back of the head, taking off part of his head as well. Yegor sees this and ends up getting killed by her. William dies in the hospital later. Across town, Dr. Ivanov (wonderfully played by Stacey Keach) and his sidekick Pavel are trying to make brain transplants on humans successful. They hear of William and Yegor's death and decide to steal their bodies to make the operation work. Lo and behold, it does. Now both William and Yegor's thoughts occupy William's body. They must work together to find the woman who killed them and get revenge, but they also must deal with getting ill, due to them sharing the same brain cells.

This is obviously a homage to those cheesy sci-fi movies from the 1950s, by the way it was written and shot. The budget was almost non-existent, but it worked. The acting was surprisingly good. Bruce is in top form as always, and throws in a lot of slap-stick (circa Evil Dead II) when he has to fight with Yegor for control of what is now their body. Everyone else is in fine shape acting-wise as well. Very well done all-round.

On a side note, I know Bruce is the star, but Ted Raimi as Pavel owns the movie. He talks in a Snoop Dogg-type dialogue and is so funny. I can honestly say I busted up EVERY time he was on screen (trust me on this). So in closing, I say this movie was surprisingly a great way to spend 90 mins. Worth checking out or even owning.

Wednesday, 16 March 2016

"A straight-to-DVD horror movie." You hear that and nothing special
comes to mind. You think it will be a low...low budget movie full of
bad acting and horrible effects. Now bad acting and low budget effects
don't really matter to me all that much, if it's entertaining. Hell, I'm
a fan of certain Troma movies for Christ's sake. Devour actually turned
out to be pretty good.

Jake (played by Jensen Ackles of
Supernatural fame) often has visions/daydreams of violence, murder,
self-mutilation and doesn't know why. On his 21st birthday, his best
friend signs him up for a computer game called The Pathway. If something
bad happens to you, you get a phone call, and things are supposedly
"made right." Jake loses his job, and on the phone, tells whoever is
calling him that he wants his boss killed. Now this doesn't happen, but
his boss is robbed. When he calls the cops and blames it on Jake, the
cameras show that the boss was behind it all, when Jake is of course
innocent.

Jake finds out his best friend and his girlfriend are
also playing The Pathway. However, their phone calls are reminding them
how horrible their lives are, leading to murder and suicide. Eventually,
everyone Jake comes into contact with is being affected.*SPOILER*
Jake finds out that the Devil is behind this, (the reason is revealed
later), as the Pathway is also a connection to our world and Hell.

Okay.
Sure the premise sounds hokey, and it seems like a rip-off of the
Edward Furlong movie, Brainscan. There isn't too much difference.
However, the acting is much better (sorry Furlong fans). The production
value is surprisingly good, considering that this was straight-to-DVD.
There's also some nice gore. When all is revealed, it does leave a
little to be desired however. But overall, I did really like the ending.
Not the best, but good nonetheless.

I was expecting crap, since
I only heard of this movie due to reading a brief thing about it in an
old issue of Fangoria. But I ended up pretty pleased. Would I buy it?
Eh....if it was cheap at Wal-Mart or Best Buy, most likely. But not if
it was full price. Totally worth a watch and a fun way to kill 90
minutes.

Tuesday, 8 March 2016

I have to admit something. Something that, with me being a huge horror fan, you wouldn't think would happen to me. I have only ever found one horror film scary. Nothing has managed to create the feeling of relelntless terror and fear that I used to get watching this movie. I will never forget walking around our local video store (who always seemed to store the horror movies where children couldn't reach them) and seeing a pale white mask on the cover of a film called Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers. I then saw the trailer for the film, and remember how scared I got just by the music alone. I even remember what video label I saw the trailer on (it was Braveworld) even though I can't remember the name of the film I was watching. Anytime from that moment on I saw I had rented a Braveworld video, I would forgo the trailers to avoid putting myself through nearly having a heart attack (which is what it felt like whenever that damn theme would begin).

Move forward a few years, and my family recieved a load of videos, and many of them contained two horror films which had been recorded from when they were shown on TV. One of them had John Carpenter's Halloween and The Alchemist on it. My stepfather, who seemed to enjoy stopping me doing things I would enjoy, told my mum not to let me watch Halloween as it was 'supernatural' (this was a sure-fire way of making my mum not allow me to watch a film, as she is Christian). Amazingly though, when my stepfather went out and my mum was cleaning, I asked if I could watch Halloween, and to my surprise she said yes (perhaps me telling her it was no worse than Friday the 13th part 6, where Jason is obviously a reanimated corpse went someway to allowing this). As soon as that sparse theme began playing, my heart pounded in my ears and I felt feint. I had heard metal bands that made me sit up and feel nervous, such as Kreator (Toxic Trace), Venom (In League with Satan), Slayer (the entire Hell Awaits album) and Celtic Frost (The Usurper), but never had a single instrument made me feel so fearful. I managed to watch the whole film, but did make numerous trips to the bottom of the stairs to ask my mum if she was ok.

John Carpenter's Halloween scared me for many years. It made me anxious. I would walk up stairs, jumping the last two steps and slam my door behind me. I would refuse to look out of my window at night, thinking I would see a man in that pale blank mask that allowed me to project my fear upon. Each year, on October 31st, I would watch the original Halloween. It was tradition, and it was damned fun being scared. It was only last Halloween, after viewing the film when it was shown at our local cinema that the fear went away.

It then made me realise how disappointed I am that no other horror film has managed to have that effect on me. I began asking myself questions. Why do I watch horror if it doesn't scare me? To answer this, I began my quest to watch different types of horror film. Not just the slashers/gore fests/Troma films I had grown up with. I explored Hammer, Italian cinema and German splatter fests. I watched possession films, films about hauntings, films about true to life murders. I also noticed how these films made me feel very different emotions. While splatter films made me laugh and cheer at the sheer blood and guts they provided, Hammer instilled a very strong feeling of dread, of something very wrong on screen. Italian Cinema was unnerving because of its non-linear storytelling and operatic violence. The supernatural films made me feel uneasy, again feeling like I was watching something that I should not be (and it is arguable that this could be because of the way my mum reacted to supernatural films throughout my childhood).

It then came to me. Horror isn't there just to scare you. Horror is an umbrella term. Not only can it scare you, it can make you feel uneasy, disgust you, provoke anger, disgust as well as joy, excitement, stimulation, empathy, humour and shock. It encompasses so many different emotions, and gives us a release of things that might be playing on our minds. It also allows us to stare death, monsters and pure evil in the face safely and without harm.

Monday, 7 March 2016

I rented this after remembering my friend Alan mentioning it years
ago. I was visiting him in South Carolina and we were just bullshitting
on his porch. He said it really creeped him out as a kid, so I took a
chance. Good job Alan.

It stars Anthony Hopkins as Corky, who
performs magic tricks at night clubs. His first time out, he bombs. Big
time. He lashes out on the entire crowd. His next time out, he is now
trying ventriloquism with his foul-mouthed dummy named Fats, and is a
huge hit. Burgess Meredith is an agent who signs Corky to a huge
contract, getting him T.V. deals. After a while, Corky seeks out an old
flame, Peggy, played by Ann-Margaret, while staying at a cabin near her
home. At the time, he's taking a rest from the business, since it's
hinted that he is starting to have a nervous break-down, due to the fact
he is now having conversations with Fats, who answers him.

Peggy
falls for Corky and decides to leave her husband for him, which causes
Fats to get jealous. His manager knows Corky is losing it. Fats thinks
they need to take care of him, along with Peggy's husband. And
eventually Peggy.

Anthony Hopkins shows early on, that he has
incredible acting talent. The scene when Corky's manager tells him to go
5 mins without talking to Fats is so intense. The tension in that scene
is so thick. Fats (Corky) is hilarious in the night clubs and
creepy/borderline scary off-stage. At times, you feel like Fats is an
actual character and not just some dummy. The mood that is set in the
film, you can actually feel the jealousy that he has for Peggy coming
into the picture. Ann-Margaret also does a great job as the love
interest. Very likable and sympathetic at times. Burgess Meredith is
also at his best.

Fantastic performances, tension that is so
thick you can feel it, and there is just an all out creepiness to the
film. I'm glad that I visited Alan all those years ago, or I'd never
know of this film.

Highly recommended. Alan you have made up
for telling me to watch U-TURN and BLOW. And on a side note, read the
novel as well. It was written by William Goldman, the same man that
wrote "The Princess Bride." There's a little bit of trivia for you
there. Cheers!

Saturday, 5 March 2016

Hello Internet. Eric here. So this is my debut here at Doctor
Carnage's World of Horror, and I'm not gonna lie. I'm glad to be here. I
was asked by the good doctor to help contribute here, based on what he
saw from my YouTube review of The Green Inferno (which you can watch on Eric Hyde's very own Youtube channel at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHEiGQn9my5KITx7B46n8Zw He told me for my first entry to tell
you guys a little bit about myself and how I got into horror. Well,
that's tough. I mean, I love movies in general, and horror IS my
favorite genre. But how I got into it is going to rack my brain.

I
always think that my first foray into horror was watching Pet Sematary
when it first came to VHS. I was sitting there in my living room as a
kid, eating my dinner my mom made me, and watching this is awe. This was
horrifying but fantastic at the same time. My mother is the one who got
me into horror and I will always thank her for that. But then again,
was it really Pet Sematary? It also could have been The Exorcist. Once
again, my mother, told me to watch it. Granted, it was an edited version
that was recorded off of TV, but I was hooked. I watched that movie
religiously (pun intended).

I'm a huge fan of the slasher genre,
especially the classic characters of Jason, Freddy, Michael, etc. But I
love it all. Supernatural, Slasher, Torture-porn, you name it. And I
can't wait to review stuff for you guys. Hopefully I can get someone to
check out a film I really love, or help them avoid a real piece of shit.
Or, if I can't stand a movie, maybe it will interest someone into
checking it out and perhaps they'll love it. Different strokes for
different folks. I plan on reviewing movies that I already love, some I
already hate (I'm looking at you Halloween 5), and some blind reviews as
well. And by blind reviews, I mean reviews of horror movies that I've
never seen.

So, yeah, I'm glad to be here. Hopefully the good
doctor keeps me on and you fans out there enjoy my opinions. And just
remember, that's all it is. It's just like, my opinion, man. Cheers, and
I'll see you soon.

I hope you all will join me in making Eric feel welcome here. I'm really looking forward to seeing what he will bring to the site. (Dr Carnage).